28 April 2012

Gas main rupture in Hume. Never a shortage of idiots with backhoes

| johnboy
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A gas pipe has been breached by mechanical machinery at a work site at the southern end of Tralee Street, Hume.

ACT Fire & Rescue are currently on site, conducting atmospheric monitoring and are on stand-by for fire suppression should the gas ignite. There are currently nil health risks to persons in the surrounding area of Hume.

The source of the leak is in the process of being isolated and will be repaired by authorities responsible for the gas pipe infrastructure.

Road closures are in place at the intersection of Sawmill Circuit and Tralee Street, Hume.

[Courtesy ESA]

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justin heywood said :

Holden Caulfield said :

What’s with all the sensitive backhoe operators in here, haha? Last one I used broke my phone connection between the telegraph pole and my house.

Twice.

Seems to me JB’s description is very apt.

Well I’m not a backhoe operator, nor particularly sensitive, but I have done quite a few blue collar jobs over the years. In my view, a lot of tradies are a lot more useful than most of the keyboard jockeys in my white collar world.

When the shite hits the fan, who would you rather have with you – someone who can physically do things, or someone who writes a good report?

My experience has been that when the shite hit the fan, it was often the tradie that was responsible.

It’s a big call to lay the blame at the feet of the operator without having the full story. Working in Canberra over the last few years, I’ve found many services that were not marked on the DBYD plans or the as built drawings of the facillity I was working in. The real standout experience was finding a chlorine line in a local water treatment facility which was not marked on ANY drawing, the icing on the cake being that the facility operators were not sure if the damned thing was live or not.

Also worth noting that most services installed throughout the 70’s and 80’s do not have marker tape, and most modern services tend to have the marker tape laying directly on top of the conduit\pipe, which is not terribly useful. Often times, the only warning you get of a service trench is a change in material and if you’re really lucky they’ve used bedding sand. In this case, maybe it was the operators fault, maybe not, point is, it’s impossible to tell from the information at hand, and to call the bloke an idiot without even hearing his (or her) side of the story is a pretty gormless act.

justin heywood said :

Holden Caulfield said :

What’s with all the sensitive backhoe operators in here, haha? Last one I used broke my phone connection between the telegraph pole and my house.

Twice.

Seems to me JB’s description is very apt.

Well I’m not a backhoe operator, nor particularly sensitive, but I have done quite a few blue collar jobs over the years. In my view, a lot of tradies are a lot more useful than most of the keyboard jockeys in my white collar world.

When the shite hits the fan, who would you rather have with you – someone who can physically do things, or someone who writes a good report?

I for one will welcome our Fluoro Shirted Overlords when the zombies come…

Dial Before You Dig offers a pseudo-indemnity, in that if you strike something that isn’t shown, or is shown be be somewhere else, you can point at it and claim due diligence. For instance, DBYD does not show the blanked residential gas line that was present in our front yard. Not the one that runs to our meter, but one that did run by the side of our driveway. Luckily, it was found *before* it was damaged.

dvaey said :

fabforty said :

What happened to “Dial Before You Dig” ?

Its now a website which provides graphical representations of the underground dangers, not even a ‘dial’ service anymore. There really is no excuse, especially when the operator should have had training in how to avoid these problems (ie. looking for the marker tape, testing the ground first, DBYD, etc).

And it does help if the information received is correct. Where we wanted to dig we knew there were cables buried. Didn’t need much in way of brains. Phone pit up by footpath, power pole at back fence. Draw straight line between. Simple. But we would still double check just to make sure there were no other surprises down there.

There was a surprise but not in the ground. The plan of our property and surrounding ones we got from a telco (who shall remain nameless) showed that, yes, there was an underground cable running between pit and pole.

But the pole was marked as being about 15 metres away from where it actually is.

How does anyone miss something like that. Metre or so out yes, but over half a house block?

Wonder what would have happened if we had found their cable where their plan said it wasn’t.

And it wasn’t the only incorrect above ground information shown either. And they weren’t particularly interested when we told them, but may make a note of it. Makes one wonder how accurate their plans on the rest of Australia are if they can’t even get what can be easily seen correct.

screaming banshee10:16 pm 29 Apr 12

The thing with the dial before you dig service, even if you’re told where they think the pipe runs and you stay well clear of it, if you hit the pipe 5m away from where it is supposed to be because their records are wrong its still your fault.

justin heywood10:03 pm 29 Apr 12

Holden Caulfield said :

What’s with all the sensitive backhoe operators in here, haha? Last one I used broke my phone connection between the telegraph pole and my house.

Twice.

Seems to me JB’s description is very apt.

Well I’m not a backhoe operator, nor particularly sensitive, but I have done quite a few blue collar jobs over the years. In my view, a lot of tradies are a lot more useful than most of the keyboard jockeys in my white collar world.

When the shite hits the fan, who would you rather have with you – someone who can physically do things, or someone who writes a good report?

fabforty said :

What happened to “Dial Before You Dig” ?

Its now a website which provides graphical representations of the underground dangers, not even a ‘dial’ service anymore. There really is no excuse, especially when the operator should have had training in how to avoid these problems (ie. looking for the marker tape, testing the ground first, DBYD, etc).

Holden Caulfield6:46 pm 29 Apr 12

What’s with all the sensitive backhoe operators in here, haha? Last one I used broke my phone connection between the telegraph pole and my house.

Twice.

Seems to me JB’s description is very apt.

justin heywood5:12 pm 29 Apr 12

Perhaps ‘the idiot’ could drop by your office Johnboy, and you could explain to him how you would do things?

Who knows? He might be able to lift a few of those chips off your shoulders.

Well the day I break major public infrastructure I’ll be glad of the tuition.

What happened to “Dial Before You Dig” ?

All backhoe operators should be given honourary doctorates.

Duffbowl said :

johnboy said :

idiots with computers controlling armed drones are comparatively rare.

Rare compared to the general population, or rare compared to the military organisation they work within?

Or rare in relation to the people they render well-done?

johnboy said :

idiots with computers controlling armed drones are comparatively rare.

Rare compared to the general population, or rare compared to the military organisation they work within?

speaking entirely in comparison to the general population

johnboy said :

idiots with computers rarely threaten to explode industrial precincts

American military excepted, of course.

idiots with computers controlling armed drones are comparatively rare.

screaming banshee12:40 pm 29 Apr 12

To be fair, natural gas is reticulated at relatively low pressures and dissipates very quickly so while a localised flame up is possible, exploding an industrial precinct….not so much.

There is never a shortage of idiots with a computer either.

idiots with computers rarely threaten to explode industrial precincts

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